We reported not too long ago about how all of a sudden the Obama administration was concerned about election fraud – something Democrats usually labeled as a “conspiracy theory” perpetrated by those on the right, perhaps even the alt-right.

They’re concerned because of the potential of hackers – working at the behest of Russia – might try to swing the election in favor of Donald Trump. While liberals had championed Julian Assange when he would release incriminating information on George W. Bush, they now view the WikiLeaks founder as a terrorist, because of his campaign against Hillary Clinton. They think that Assange’s criticism of Hillary means that he must support Donald Trump. So, liberals reason that Assange must be working for Russia, because Putin also wants Trump to win – or so they say.

The FBI issued a warning about the potential of election fraud this November when it was revealed that two states’ election systems were breached by foreign hackers. Personal information on some 200,000 voters was stolen. From Yahoo News:

The bulletin does not identify the states in question, but sources familiar with the document say it refers to the targeting by suspected foreign hackers of voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois. In the Illinois case, officials were forced to shut down the state’s voter registration system for ten days in late July, after the hackers managed to download personal data on up to 200,000 state voters, Ken Menzel, the general counsel of the Illinois Board of Elections, said in an interview. The Arizona attack was more limited, involving malicious software that was introduced into its voter registration system but no successful exfiltration of data, a state official said.

According to cybersecurity expert Rich Barger, “This is a big deal.” Barger is the chief intelligence officer for ThreatConnect – a firm that specializes in cybersecurity. He added, “Two state election boards have been popped, and data has been taken. This certainly should be concerning to the common American voter.”

Barger noted that one of the IP addresses associated with the breaches was one that has surfaced before in underground Russian hacker forums. He also said that the methods and tools used in the election systems hack were similar to other hacks allegedly perpetrated by Russians.

Yahoo News added that such pressure mounting on the Department of Homeland Security could lead the agency to designate the nation’s elections systems as part of the country’s “critical infrastructure.” This would allow states to appeal to federal authorities for assistance in protecting November’s elections.

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